Tomar still to remain under police custody after court puts off bail plea hearing

A court here on Thursday refused to grant interim relief to former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, accused in an alleged fake degree case, and deferred the hearing on his bail application till June 16.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Jain deferred the bail hearing while observing that the investigating officer of the case is out of Delhi with the accused, and the progress report and documents related to the case are not available to the court.

“It is in the interest of all the parties that the bail plea is decided after considering the records on expiry of the police remand. Put up the bail application for June 16 before the court of competent jurisdiction,” the judge said.

The court said that this matter requires “objective consideration” after going through the records. The judge said: “Order for interim bail will further complicate the matter and the same is neither appropriate nor desirable.” The court directed the investigating officer to appear in person with records of the case on the next date fixed for hearing.

On Tuesday, a magistrate had sent Tomar to four days in police custody following his arrest in the alleged fake law degree case. Delhi Police arrested Tomar on Tuesday and slapped a case of cheating, forgery and conspiracy against him. The police while seeking Tomar’s custody had told the court that the investigation in the case was at its initial stages and the documents pertaining to the law degree obtained by him were “fake”.

Tomar’s counsel and senior advocate Ramesh Gupta challenging the magisterial court order that granted the four-day custody, alleged that his client’s arrest was “illegal”. Advocate Gupta, however, withdrew his plea on Thursday after the sessions, judge granted him liberty to file a fresh and proper plea against the magisterial court’s order.

Arguing for bail, Gupta requested the court to grant Tomar interim bail till the final disposal of his regular bail, claiming that he has been “implicated in a false case”. Gupta questioned the urgency of Tomar’s arrest by Delhi police: “Why was there such an urgency to arrest Tomar? He was abducted by police so that he could not move anticipatory bail.”

The counsel said that the objective of the arrest was to “tarnish the image of his client.” Delhi Police opposed the bail plea of the former minister. Public Prosecutor Tarunvir Singh Khehar requested the court to defer the hearing saying that police is now “handicapped” as the IO — investigating officer — of the case is out of the city with the entire case records.